Could someone who is relatively au fait with Word help me before I kill myself and everyone on my floor?

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Right. I am going utterly batshit insane here trying to wrangle this bloody document into a format that looks like what it's supposed to.

The problem is: I am editing a journal. Yes, in Word. Feh, etc. I have one document with a number of different sections in it due to page/column breaks and such, some of which are delimiting discreet articles that are all part of the same thing, but start on different pages. Is there a way that I can format the WHOLE DAMN LOT so that the odd/even pages' footers are all the same, no matter what section, starting at page 1 of the document, except I actually want that to say page 3.

Possibly in my frayed mental state I haven't described this particularly well but AARRRGHHH anyway. Anyone who manages to crack this will receive undying adoration and unconditional love. Unless you don't want that, obv.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

To clarify: currently using a Mac but have my laptop (which is a PC) lying around if one only knows how to do it on that.

And yes, I was planning on killing everyone else on the floor before myself.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

so do you mean that the odd and even pages have different footers? or does every single page in the entire document need to have the same footer?

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

http://www.xemacs.org

Unfortunately I have no other good suggestions. Maybe you could ask Clippy?

― lyra (lyra), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:48 (twenty years ago)

The odds and evens have to be different, yes. That's not so much of a problem, the problem is really all the different sections that all seem to be independently numbered, as some of the original documents already had the appropriate footers in before concatenation.

And it has to be done on Word because that's what everything's in so it was in theory easier. I've suggested that if I'm to do this task again, GET ONE DESKTOP PUBLISHING SUITE that doesn't keep changing things into Times New Roman for no apparent reason.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

haha asking clippy would be the surest way to accelerate your murderous rage. also i totally sympathise with your random times new roman problemo. also i want to smash my computer when word magically decides to renumber things through the whole document, starting with something totally irrelevant like #53.

i was thinking more along the lines of using the 'same as previous' function for every section. only i think possibly you can't do that if you want different footers on odd/even pages. sorry i'm not that au fait, i just thought the clarification might be useful for posters who know what they're actually talking about.

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

When all else fails: select all, copy and open a new document. Paste special, unformatted text then edit it to the way it should be. Hope this helps.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

I thought about doing that. But then I'd have to redo all the formatting... hhrrrnnnnnn... maybe it's for the best...

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

i find sometimes that redoing all the formatting from scratch is quicker than spending hours trying to work out how to edit it in vain and mucking everything up then trying to backwards repair it. i guess it depends on how long your document is and how complicated the formatting. good luck though!

― gem (trisk), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

I think at this point, it's about the only way you can go cuz you have hidden hinky formatting in there that you can't see easily (which is what's driving you batshit). At least doing it this way you can edit it w/o frustration of jumping font styles and columns and footer/header nonsense cropping up. Although it will take time, you KNOW it will work and be right. Best of luck, boy-o I HATE that crud. Legal firms send me stuff like that all the time and it's a PAIN. Yeech.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

I'll have to reinsert all the pictures too, sigh. I HATE OTHER PEOPLE'S FORMATTING.

Get one QuarkXPress people, also.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

Eh, think I'll just de-concatenate them into single files and spare my sanity, at least then I won't have to worry about all the frigging section breaks.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

use LaTeX, for typesetting beautiful documents. fuck microsoft.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

maybe this:
1. On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
2. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Page Setup .
3. Click the Layout tab.
4. Select the Different odd and even check box, and then click it off.
5. Make sure Apply to Whole Document is selected. Close Page Set Up.
5. Select Format page number -> Page Numbering -> Start At, enter 3.

maybe not though.

― teh Nü and Impröved john n chicago (frankE), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

If you're gonna port it into DTP use InDesign rather than Quark! Its cheaper and bettererer.

Sorry I know thats no help at all tho =)

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

I've given up. I've split them up into different sections and footer-ed them all separately. It works. The printer will find it a nuisance, but EH IT IS NOT MY PROBLEM ANYMORE.

(I suggested Quark because I've used it and I have a PC copy, see. I acquired it semi-legally for a purpose that has since expired, ahem)

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 05:58 (twenty years ago)

I also love LaTeX, but it's not the easiest thing to learn, especially if you actually want to change its standard layout and formatting.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 07:56 (twenty years ago)

That should be on the perversions thread, Forest.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

Hahahah. Wait and see!

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 11:57 (twenty years ago)

It's done, well, my part is done, anyway, it is NOW SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM AND I DO NOT CARE if they have to go to more effort to fiddle around with nine other files, the people that sent the original things in with shit formatting should be beaten with blunt things.

The good news is that I suggested using a real DTP package and having the association reimburse for purchase, and it PROBABLY WILL HAPPEN, so HOORAY for that. WIll take suggestions of which to get in mind, ta.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

i've not used inDesign yet, but i had a three-hour demo the other week and fuck me, it's nice. all the stuff quark should do and just doesn't.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 20 July 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

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